Fix passwords disappearing due to AVG security software

This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.

This article only applies to Firefox on Windows.

The “Password Protection” feature of AVG security software has caused logins and passwords stored in Firefox to disappear after recent updates to Firefox. It may also cause users to experience disruptions in syncing devices as they may get logged-out repeatedly from their Firefox Account, even if they do not store logins and passwords.

Affected Firefox versions:

  • Release 67.0.2
  • Beta 68.0b9 and higher
  • Nightly versions since June 7, 2019

By now AVG should have an update available to their software which stops further problems with logins and passwords in Firefox. The fix by AVG is in virus definition 19061402 and higher.

First make sure that AVG is up-to-date, so it no longer corrupts your login and password file. To manually trigger an update to AVG:

  1. Double-click the AVG icon on your desktop to open the application.
  2. Click the Refresh icon next to Virus definition in the bottom-right corner of the main AVG Antivirus screen.
  3. Wait while AVG checks for Virus definition updates.
  4. When the update is complete, you see Virus definitions are up to date.
  5. If you are asked to restart your computer, click Restart Now to reboot immediately.

Your logins and passwords can now be recovered as follows:

We have released an add-on to replace the steps below. Affected users can download it here: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/restore-logins/.

Please note the add-on is not compatible with Nightly; if you are using Nightly, please follow these manual steps:
  1. Open the Firefox web browser.
  2. Click the menu button Fx57Menu, click Fx57Help Help and select Troubleshooting Information. The Troubleshooting Information page will open.
  3. Under Application Basics, click the Open Folder button next to Profile Folder. This will open the profile folder.
  4. Close Firefox: Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Exit.Click the Firefox menu at the top of the screen and select Quit Firefox.Click the Firefox menu Fx89menuButton and select Quit.
  5. Check if you see a file called logins.json in your profile folder.
    • If you do, rename it to logins.json.old.
  6. Check if you see a file called logins.json.corrupt with a June 2019 date in your profile folder.
    • If you do, right-click on the file, copy it and then rename it to logins.json.
  7. Start Firefox.

Your passwords should now be available and you should be able to sync without signing in again.

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Underpass, Madasan, patrickmc, Artist
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